The Invasion of Time The Time Warrior |
BBC The Sontaran Experiment |
|
| Episodes | 2 |  |
| Story No# | 77 | |
| Production Code | 4B | |
| Season | 12 | |
| Dates | Feb. 22, 1975 - Mar. 1, 1975 |
|
With Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter.
Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Script-edited by Robert Holmes. Directed by Rodney Bennett. Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe. |
| Synopsis: Continuing from The Ark in Space, the Doctor, Harry, and Sarah discover a grizzly plot on the supposedly barren Earth. |
Unfortunately a gap-filler? by Troy Irvin 6/12/97
Although I have always been enthusiastic about the basic story driving The Sontaran Experiment, this has always been more about untapped potential rather than the actual brushed-over result that was screened in 1973. The two episode Sontaran Experiment is unfortunately often regarded as a gap-filler between the strong Ark In Space and the most powerful Doctor Who story ever, Genesis of the Daleks. The storyline simply deserved more. I will be bold and suggest that given adequate development (probably an additional two episodes) and a different attitude it could have been a great.
I was not particularly impressed with the Sontaran methodology. It does not make sense to have an entire battle fleet waiting for a signal to attack that is based on a bunch of crude tests conducted by one military officer. Surely a team of Sontarans with scientific backgrounds would be considerably more thorough and eliminate all the risks associated with inaccurate data sourced from a poorly conducted experiment. They did miss out didn't they?
The Doctor demonstrated great courage to defeat the Sontaran by prompting unarmed combat to the extent that Tom Baker broke his collarbone in a fall! This fight scene was the highlight of the story but once again deserved more.
As a big fan of the arrogant Sontarans I always wish they were given a larger share of the Doctor Who world. Years ago I remember my dad returning home from work as I tuned into Doctor Who at 5.30 pm and he saw on the TV what he dubbed a Spud-Man - yes, a Sontaran! So I give an extra mark from my dad for the distinct potato-like head. I will however take off a mark for the flimsy robot (surely a very poor design in such rocky terrain) and the ease with which the Doctor put it out of commission. Overall a 6.5.
A Review by Leo Vance 20/1/98
It has been commented that this is a less than perfect story. I agree. But it is a very good story. The criticisms raised by Troy Irvin are valid but strange.
On the upside, this story has a strong performance from Tom Baker as the Doctor, and a good performance from Ian Marter playing the funniest companion ever, Harry Sullivan. Kevin Lindsay is brilliant as Styre, and his Robot is excellent, a superb device, well constructed and used. The Doctors use of the sonic screwdriver to destroy it is no more unlikely than the destruction of the forcefield with the screwdriver. Glyn Jones as Krans is excellent, putting in a great performance as a well-written character. Vural is less effective on the acting stakes, but his character is more interesting. The location work is excellent, and the spheres, as well as the Sontaran ship, are well constructed. The death of Styre is also well done, and the direction is good as well.
On the downside is Elisabeth Sladen, who is playing a weak, spineless coward in this story. Sarah Jane Smith is impressive in some stories usually with Jon Pertwee, and in others, she works well with the Doctor but not on her own. Here, she is cowardly and incompetent. A wimp, as in some others.
Also on that downside is Erak. He is a terrible performance, and a bad character. I just don't like the whole Erak section of the plot.
The plot itself is in between good and bad, with some excellent ideas (the Sontaran on Earth torturing people) and some less so (that said Sontaran could vaporise a military spaceship on his own). While the torture is not much of a report, perhaps it is all that the Sontaran Grand Strategic Council wants (to satisfy the troops that they know about humans, maybe).
A fairly mixed adventure, but certainly there are many more good points than bad. 7/10
After the fire by Ken Wrable 27/4/00
This is a real oddity, as its title suggests: the only seventies Dr Who story to come in at less than four episodes, and filmed entirely on location. It's as if Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes, the new producer and script-editor of the programme, were testing what was possible with the series' format.
So, does it work? Well, yes, surprisingly well. The unusual brevity of the story means that we don't really get to learn much about the supporting characters but it also cuts down on padding, gratuitous subplots and extended capture/escape sequences. The location shooting is very effective and the scenario of a post-apocalyptic Earth is credibly evoked. It's also refreshing to watch a story with no space station-type control rooms and corridors.
Characteristically of this era of Dr Who, there are some fairly horrific ideas underpinning the story - this time, the "nightmare" factor is the systematic torture of human beings in the name of scientific investigation. Some of the experiments are only referred to, but those that we do get to see are surprisingly graphic. The special effects in The Sontaran Experiment are of variable quality; the robot is far from convincing, but I did enjoy the deflating head bit at the end of episode two. The fight scene's pretty good too.
The cast here all perform well. The stranded humans all seem convincingly haggard and stressed-out, while the regulars have by now formed an unusually impressive team. Elisabeth Sladen doesn't have much of a chance to shine, but Ian Marter's Harry is just great and Tom Baker is as much of a bug-eyed wonder as ever. You almost don't notice that he's wearing a neck brace.
It's something of a shame that the cliffhanger to the first episode is ruined by the title of the story, but I guess this is in the grand tradition of all those Dalek stories where we're supposed to be surprised when a Dalek dramatically appears at the end of episode one (Planet of the Daleks, Dalek Invasion of the Earth and so on). All in all, this is an interesting diversion.
The Odd One Out by Mark Irvin 21/11/01
I'm not exactly sure, but I have a feeling that for some reason or another, the production team were exactly two episodes short for season 12. Therefore The Sontaran Experiment was written and commissioned to fill this gap. Filmed entirely on location, it's a refreshing change from the more studio bound (but very good) stories that surround. The absence of any padding is also a nice change - The Sontaran Experiment is proof that a two part story can be effective.
It's interesting to note that after the initial broadcast there weren't many concerns aimed at the brutality in this story. Styre's experiments in my opinion are actually quite horrific for their time (human torture - fluid deprivation, tissue compression). When you really think about it they are certainly far worse than anything that occurred in the once banned The Brain of Morbius. Far more realistic.
I disagree with my brother's above theory that this was potentially a four parter, I think it worked well and served it's purpose as it stood. However, I definitely agree that it is somewhat implausible that an entire battle fleet would wait on the results from a single scouting scientist before attacking. Additionally, it's a little unlikely that a simple message from the Doctor would even deter this attack. These questionable situations along with the slightly silly looking robot are the main downsides to the story.
On the upside the complete cast performs very well. Kevin Lindsay deserves special mention with a memorable performance as Styre. Baker is still acclimatising to the role of the Doctor but is terrific in the famous fight scene with Styre. Ian Marter convinces as Harry confirming my disappointment that his endearing character never stayed on the show longer.
All in all The Sontaran Experiment is an interesting and enjoyable little adventure but unfortunately is nothing special - due to the lack of serious storyline development (the main two parter shortcoming) and some improbable situations.
A Time Filler by Tim Roll-Pickering 14/8/02
This story is a rarity in that it is set entirely on location but unfortunately it becomes all too obvious that virtually everything takes place in an immediate vicinity and so there's little sense of scale about the events. Furthermore the absence of shots of either the GalSec colonist's ship or the Sontaran battle fleet results in little sense of just how important matters are.
A strong attempt is made to give both Sarah and Harry something to do in this story but it is clear that Harry is there to perform an action role in the mould of Jamie, Ben, Steven or Ian and that this role is redundant given that the Doctor himself can perform such a role.
Part One foolishly spends all its time building up a sense of mystery that can only be resolved hurriedly in Part Two. This story is extremely light on character or incident and is wisely confined to only being a two-parter since it could never have supported anything longer. The plot is at least original but given that the story is set in the far future it is extremely difficult to accept that the Sontarans require such basic information about the human physical form. The use of the Sontarans is a good idea, since it provides a link with the last Jon Pertwee season and thus shows to the viewer that even though the Doctor has recently changed appearance, the adventures and adversaries remain the same. But given the length of time that has passed since the 11th century one has to wonder how the human race can have escaped the attention of the the Sontarans for so long.
In contrast to his direction on the previous story, The Ark in Space, Rodney Bennett's direction is far less inspired on location and so there's very little suspense or terror. The effects are also weak, with Styre's robot best forgotten. Styre makes a strong physical impression but otherwise there's extremely little in this story that's visually memorable.
On the acting side none of the guest cast stand out in any particular way, though Kevin Lindsay brings a strong sadistic streak to Styre. Ultimately it is difficult to find very much in The Sontaran Experiment that stands out in any particular way. This is a story that at best fills up a gap and is fortunately over far sooner than many other time fillers. 4/10
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 12/11/03
The Sontaran Experiment is an effective two parter that makes the most of its budget and manages to entertain at the same time. As criticisms go, there is only one to be levelled at the story in terms of plot; that being why does Styre need to experiment if the earth is abandoned?
This aside, the story is still great, conveying the impression of an abandoned Earth, thanks to the excellent location work. Similarly the performances are generally excellent, with both Harry and The Doctor coming out on top in terms of characterisation. Robert Lindsay also puts in a great turn as the sadistic Styre, a different type of Sontaran to Linx. Even the ungainly robot, isn`t too bad, although the Doctor does tend to rely a lot on his sonic screwdriver during the story. The only other risible effect is that of the deflating Sontaran head - why not have him just keel over?
In short,this is a great story, atmospheric, with strong characterisation and acting, and an enjoyable way to pass 50 minutes of your time.
A Review by Brian May 27/2/04
The Sontaran Experiment is a wonderfully atmospheric mood piece, alternating between suspenseful and just plain creepy. It is often overlooked as inconsequential because of its short length, but to dismiss it like this is unjustified. Coming out of the Pertwee era, with long stories that wore on the patience, this adventure is a terrific example of what can be achieved in a short space of time.
In some respects it feels too quick. The usual first episode build-up to the revelation of the monster (although the giveaway title, if you already know who the Sontarans are, spoils things) becomes half the story, meaning that everything else must take place in only one episode. The story does feel hastened by its length, but it succeeds because the atmosphere is so unrelenting. The high production values also add to this.
The location footage, used for the entire story, is excellent. The wilds of Dartmoor substitute perfectly for a post-apocalyptic Earth, instilling a feel of loneliness and desolation. It's certainly not one for agoraphobics, as the music, direction and sometimes just the silence saturate the open spaces with a sense of dread. The camerawork achieves this as well - Sarah's over the shoulder glances at the ridge above her and the point of view shot as Roth slowly approaches her - are great examples of this. It's obvious that something is wrong here. The exposition is good, cementing the fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry team. They all get something to do - at times it feels like it's just running across moors or scrambling among rocks - but they are all actively enhancing the story.
The atmosphere is testament to the new hands at the helm of Doctor Who - Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes. This is the first recorded (although transmitted second) adventure of this producer-script editor team, and it brilliantly encapsulates their philosophy for the programme. It is dark, grim and at times horrific. The first episode, as mentioned above, is a slow build-up with figures that flicker in the corner of the eye, a "thing" that lurks in the rocks, tales of disappearing crewmen, torture, and an ominous robot that sweeps the countryside. The second episode continues this mood, with a cruel experiment performed on Sarah and disturbing images of a man chained to a rock, left to die of thirst. Yes, these are dark, grim days indeed - not that anyone's complaining though, for I too am one of those who believes the Holmes/Hinchcliffe years are certainly one of the show's best eras.
It's good to see the Sontarans again - a href=timew.htm>The Time Warrior proved they were interesting monsters, and Kevin Lindsay is excellent in his return performance(s). True to the new feel of the programme, Styre is a colder, nastier incarnation, whereas Linx, although unpleasant, at least didn't inflict such pain on people. The nature of Styre's experiments, being methodical and clinical rather than sadistic, is quite chilling (although we do see the alien's sadistic side - note how he chooses Vural, the man he used as his spy, to be the one tied to the rock in his tissue compressability test).
As I also mentioned, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry make a good team. Tom Baker and Ian Marter have settled in well to their new roles, while Elisabeth Sladen is as wonderful as ever. All the crewmen are realised pretty well - you can almost forgive Glyn Jones for The Space Museum! Erak gets a little overexcited at times - but then, this is the actor who would deliver the priceless "I ain't going down there Giovanni!" line in a few years' time (The Masque of Mandragora).
The only faults with The Sontaran Experiment lie in aspects of its plotting. The basic premise is okay, but if Earth is uninhabited, why do the Sontarans need a report before invading it? It's indicated that Earth has strategic value and would be a useful base, so why don't they just land? The testing of humans to determine their weaknesses is sound enough, as it's implied that they are anticipating conflict with them in their latest military campaign. But just the invasion of Earth bit, it's irritatingly unnecessary. The climax is also rather a letdown - the "brinkmanship" the Doctor applies is rather unconvincing. He says the Sontarans are methodical, but from the Marshal's response, it seems as if they're more bureaucrats then anything else - most untypical for such a warlike species. And, as I also mentioned, a wonderful sense of mystery in part one is totally squashed by the title.
But this story is interesting and accomplished. Its short length and total absence of studio-bound scenes make it an experiment in itself. An imperfect one, but definitely not one to chuck in the rubbish bin. 7.5/10
"Your Waterloo, Marshall!" by Joe Ford 30/3/04
This story has always felt to me like DS9 did to the Star Trek universe, unfairly treated as the middle child because it is surrounded by two much more appreciated (and yet not always as good as they are claimed to be) and recognisable stories/shows. Honestly if your fellows were Ark in Space and Genesis of the Daleks you are bound to be left out a tad. But this is unfair treatment of a story that in its own right is just as good as those two and a damn sight more experimental than either.
Two parters were rare at any period of the show, they crop up sporadically and seem to work rather well when they do, balancing off a heavyweight story either side with what some might call 'filler' (although I despise the term). The Rescue was a breath of fresh air after the drama (or attempted drama) of Dalek Invasion of Earth, Black Orchid distracts us from the powerful shocks coming up in Earthshock and The Awakening (hardly a favourite) highlights the strengths of Frontios by being rushed and unexplained.
Squeezed between two studio heavy stories The Sontaran Experiment brilliantly opens out the season with a story entirely shot on location. I firmly believe Philip Hinchcliffe knew exactly what he was doing as he planned out each season and this story is ideally placed, it rather cleverly uses ideas that were initiated in The Ark in Space and expands them to an extent where you can be tempted to call it a six parter had they not been so different in tone.
It astonished me when I noticed that Rob Matthews stuck this story in his top forty turkeys, especially when he commented on how the story was really cheapo filler. I always thought it was one of the best looking Doctor Who stories purely because it was location bound and saved from any wobbly sets and silly monsters. It has that advantage over so many Doctor Who stories in that it is believably shot in a location that suits the material, if you can't buy into a story set entirely on the Dartmoor moorland than where can you?
As Brian May so accurately points out the direction is near perfect. Had this been a normal alien invasion story that just happened to be set in a remote location it would have been atmospheric but with the previous four episodes building up a picture of a wild, lonely planet abandoned by the human race then immediately we are enraptured by the bleak chill and frightening desolation of the location work.
The thought of the Doctor, Sarah and Harry landing on an uninhabited planet is superbly brought to life by a scene where Sarah and Harry discuss how quiet it is. I love it as we become aware that they are not as alone as they first thought, blurs of movement in the corner of the eye, gun sights trained on them... the atmosphere thickens as Harry is trapped, the Doctor shot and Sarah on her own to face whatever horrors lurk in post apocalyptic Earth.
There are some stunning visuals that never fail to make an impact no matter how many times I watch the story. I love the scene where Harry comes face to face with a sheer expanse of stone, the music reveals his disbelief. Or the small moment of the water dripping from the tendrils onto the Doctor's face which wake him. Best of is the dramatic punchline of the first episode, the first shot of the Sontaran spaceship in the rocks. Those spherical ships look mighty cool and for once this feels like a genuine threat, the incongruity of the hardware amongst the craggy rocks makes for a memorable image.
A whole episode of build up for a two parter might feel like a waste of time but it provides one hell of a cliffhanger. Sarah dragged in front of the ship, the door opening and the Sontaran emerging only to remove his helmet is a truly excellent pay off for the atmospheric opener, the rising music adding a lot of importance to the moment. I love it.
The second episode wastes no time in involving the viewer in Styre's horrific experiments. The Sontarans remain to this day one of the more intruging alien races thanks to the hard work Robert Holmes put into conceiving them. He was right to badger writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin into ensuring the dialogue suited the race, some inconsistencies appear (calling a character a "moron" feels a bit out of place) but on the whole this is another startling appearance. It is disturbing to hear his reports of the sadistic experiments; the writers make it clear that humans are militaristically a very weak race whose weaknesses can be exploited easily. Just lines like "Why did you make that disagreeable noise?" when Sarah screams and "That is my function, I am a warrior" after murdering Vurrul reveal much about this callous species. It is wonderful that they use the same actor as the Marshal as it highlights the cloning theme without throwing it in your face; subtle moments like this are what make or break a Doctor Who story. And how like the Sontarans to send a warrior to survey the species for its weaknesses before landing, intelligent, calculated and strange that no other invading aliens has ever thought of it before.
The torture scenes are strikingly discomforting such as they should be. Sarah's is the ickiest, that horrid sludge rising up her legs would be enough to get me wailing in fear but the rocks falling down are also quite frightening. But the stress on the ribcage test is also mighty cool, the three Galsec members proving to be right wankers in the first episode so hopefully a little torture might knock some sense into them.
Harry says little but Ian Marter's contribution is always welcome, he handles all the action very well and manages to grab a moment or two amongst all the running around. It is great when he decides to attack Styre head on after discovering the bodies of the Doctor and Sarah and the dead guy chained to the rock, you genuinely feel his beside manner strained to breaking point. Plus it contains one of my favourite Harry lines ever "Don't worry Sarah, I'll get you free even if I have knock his bally head off and grab his keys!"
It may be over too quickly but a further episode of this fresh air might have started to get boring, it is always best to leave your audience wanting more rather than wishing for it to end!
Besides the climax is rather brilliant with the Doctor taking a much
more physical part in the story than you would imagine from Tom Baker. The
fight with Styre is breathlessly directed to encompass the location in its
entirety, they really go at over those rocks, chucking each other about
rolling about, fists and knives at the ready. Love the sunny hill it is
filmed on, it's enough to make you want to rush out and play about in the
sun yourself.
Addressing Rob's criticism that the story is poorly thought out I would
have to dismiss this too; it is made perfectly clear that the Sontarans
are a proud and arrogant race. It appears that they have judged humans
correctly, that they are mentally and physiologically weak creatures;
Styre's initial report confirms this. But to have their facts thrown in
their face, the possibility that this may be a superior species after all,
clever enough to dupe them into thinking their slave class was their
average citizens, is enough to warn them off. At least for now. I think it
makes perfect sense and the Sontarans are right to be cautious, one wrong
move and they could lose their endless battle with the Rutans. But then
their rubbishy attack on Gallifrey proves they never learnt their lesson.
It's brilliant stuff all in all, exciting, engaging and best of all
realistic. It is a story that delights in its location and manages to
advantageously write a good story around it. Refreshing and interesting.
An excellent, thrilling 2-parter by Konstantin Hubert
4/5/04
“Ah, so that’s the Sontaran way?” snaps the 4th
Doctor scornfully to Styre, the Sontaran, just before we see them fighting
to death.
If this is always the Sontaran Way then I can only wish the Doctor had
encountered those warlike stout, humanoids with the brown hairless
dome-like heads more than four times. They make wonderful villains,
suitable for every kind of adventure especially action-packed adventures,
like Sontaran Experiment.
Originally, Sontaran Experiment was designed to be the last two
parts of a 6-parter but eventually it follows on from the 4-parter Ark in Space individually. After leaving the Space
Station Nerva at the very end of Ark in Space the
Doctor, Harry and Sarah beam down on Earth in the distant future to check
out if there is life on the planet and if it is still habitable. Not only
is Earth still habitable but it hosts an evil alien race the Doctor and
Sarah have already confronted (in Time Warrior).
Styre, a Sontaran, played very well by Kevin Lindsay, is performing
torturing experiments on the few remaining humans in order to find out the
weaknesses of the human species and exploit this knowledge in their
battles against humans and in their attempt to conquer the Galaxy.
Needless to say, the Dr and his companions accidentally find themselves
embroiled in the Sontaran’s affairs...
Sontaran Experiment is a crystalline proof why tales lasting
45-50 minutes should have been more numerous during the first 26 years the
series ran. In its shorter duration it manages to gather many
characteristics that make an adventure exciting and pleasant: humor,
especially at the beginning, action/violence (the duel between the Dr and
Styre is one of the best battle scenes of the Tom Baker era, a sign of the
Dr’s vulnerability, while the cruel scenes of torture are neatly
directed), suspense (for example, when Styre with the help of his
box-shaped machine catches and ties up Sarah to perform a lethal
experiment on her), beautiful settings (it's filmed entirely on location),
a great ruthless villain, a solid, interesting plot with only few faults,
nice acting and direction (Harry is as good and naive as always while
Sarah turns me on again with her vigour and prettiness and the Dr and the
rest of the cast give a satisfying performance), even terror (in Part 1
Styre's machine is presented as the threat and at times we only see what
the machine sees, like the very first scenes of the Robot in Robot, and is therefore not shown in its entirety),
respectable, not dated special effects (pay attention to the silver
sphere, Styre's small spaceship). After having watched The Sontaran
Experiment one feels that in two 24-minute parts one has enjoyed to
the same extent what one would have enjoyed in a 4-parter or a longer
story.
Leo Vance in his review writes that on the downside is
Elisabeth Sladen, who is playing a weak, spineless coward in this story
and that here she is cowardly and incompetent. I will disagree with this
comment because in Part 1 Sarah frees the Dr, gives him back the handy
sonic screwdriver he had lost and takes initiatives. In Part 2 although
she doesn’t contribute to the destruction of Styre, when he captures
her and kills Roth, she is brave and bold enough to call him “a
murderer and an ugly creature”. Both companions, Sarah and Harry,
are delightful in this episode and more or less assist their Time Lord.
To be objective, it is not faultless: since the Sontarans seek to find
out the weaknesses of the human species, an aim really difficult to
fulfill, why do they send only one member of their race on Earth? It is a
pity that the heroes face only one Sontaran, Styre that is. He is assisted
by a silver box-shaped machine, but why not two or three Sontarans?
Whereas Cybermen and Daleks are organised in armies or groups, the
Sontaran seems to prefer wandering around as a solitary creature (bear in
mind that I haven't seen yet The Two Doctors). The
costume of Lynx, who appears in Time Warrior, could
have been used for the second Sontaran. Another fault, minor one this
time, has to do with the human warriors from Gal-Sec 7 colony: it is never
explained why they are staying in the isolated, sterile fields when they
are aware of the alien menace and why they don’t revolt, since they
are more numerous, against this menace. They seem to be all of them
frightened, at a loss and at the mercy of a single Sontaran and its
sluggish machine. How do they sustain themselves when there are no
vestiges, no trace of civilisation at all, no cultivated area?
These flaws aside, Sontaran Experiment is a very good episode
and so far my favourite and the best 2-parter that I have seen, even
better than the classic but predictable and not so action-packed Black Orchid, which is by the way the most acclaimed
2-parter. It serves well as the interlude of the 12th Season and as the
ideal tonic just before the non-stop adventure of the fabulous 6-parter Genesis of the Daleks and the sublime and undoubtedly
underrated Revenge of the Cybermen.
Grade: 9/10 (when compared to other 2-parters only and taking
into account the limited possibilities of the 2-parters due to shorter
duration) and a good grade, at least 7/10 when compared to all
stories regardless of their running time.
Death on Dartmoor by Joe Austwick
2/1/07
The first thing that strikes me when watching The Sontaran
Experiment is the sheer prettiness of it. Dartmoor? Exmoor? Dartmoor I
think.
Anway, it's all terribly organic and a huge constrast to the clinical,
white sterility of The Ark in Space. It's also quiet.
Still. Calm. The fact that it was shot on videotape as opposed to film
adds to this bizzare feeling or serenity. That's what sums up this story
in general: it's quaint. A quaint little slice of two-partness serving as
the link between the two more important stories either side of it. And
while you could easily skip from The Ark in Space to
Genesis of the Daleks and lose nothing in terms of
plot, I can't see why anyone would want to, because it's just so charming.
The opening scene is lovely with the faulty transmat and Sarah's
injured dignity. It quickly becomes eerie as it becomes apparent that
Earth is not as abandoned as they think it is. Something is watching Sarah
and Harry and it subsequently becomes apparent that the pit into which
Harry has fallen has been deliberately covered as a trap.
All three regulars give very good performances here, particularly Tom
Baker. It's amazing how quickly he settled into the role and found his
style. In The Ark in Space he was wonderful, having
been freed from the extra baggage of Earth and UNIT and therefore having
more room to develop once the series headed out into space once again. He
seems very relaxed and witty in this story and he's clearly having a ball.
Well, apart from the collarbone incident but you can't have everything.
Ian Marter is simply wonderful. Harry takes everything in his stride,
never once questioning that he has travelled through time or that he's
being menaced by sundry extraterrestrial nasties. So he's obviously a very
pragmatic fellow. And his verbal repetoire of 'old chap', 'old thing', 'I
say...' etc is very endearing.
It's not long before the robot puts in an appearance and, by God, it's
terribly cute. Or just terrible, it really rather depends on who you ask.
I suppose it's a fairly successful piece of design and construction for
its time but it looks too delicate to do all of Styre's hench work. The
GalSec men, apparently, faked South African accents in order to give the
impression of being rough and ready frontiersmen types. Well, Glyn Jones
manages to pull the accent off well enough but I'm not so sure about the
others. They share a similar role to the humans in Death
to the Daleks and therefore, the same problems. They further the plot
but don't look too closely.
Kevin Lindsay is suitably sadistic as Styre, giving a performance which
is subtly different from Linx. The titular experiments, though, are
something of a mystery. Or just a lapse in common sense on the part of the
writers. Styre is simply torturing people. Ok, that's all well and good.
It's certainly in character for the Sontarans. But Styre is actually
carrying them out as though they are genuine scientific experiments. Which
makes him seem somewhat dense. Or unimaginative at the very least. Or
maybe it's just a lack of foresight. Anyway, I digress. My point is that
it must be obvious what's going to happen. Styre has a gravity bar of
increasingly heavy weight gradually lowered over Vural's chest. Oooh, I
wonder what the result might be? Perhaps there's just a slight chance that
it will break his ribs and pulp his internal organs. Styre also says that
after immersion in water, humans die after three minutes. Mmm, funny that.
Bob Baker and Dave Martin could have been a bit more creative about the
experiments. Ok, so they're just an excuse for torture. Probably. But they
could have been done in a way which makes Styre look like less of a
simpleton.
But this is a Baker/Martin script. Paucity of logic is an occupational
hazard. But I'm not going to complain too much. This duo have been
responsible for some of the worst travesties in the entire series: The Mutants, The Invisible Enemy,
The Three Doctors... And Underworld is just boring which is an even worse
crime. But they can do it when they really make the effort. The Hand of Fear is mosly successful, bar some ranting
and I've always had a soft spot for The Claws of
Axos.
So don't overlook this charming little two parter just because it's
rather unenviably sandwhiched between two highly regarded classics. It's
a lovely piece of Bakerdom.
One of the year's least essential DVDs by Jason A.
Miller
27/8/07
Well, I shouldn't say "least essential". The Doctor Who DVD
production team made a herculean effort trying to salvage this rather
awkward little story. There's not much you can do to give the hard sell to
a 45-minute episode from 1975 when releasing it on a standalone DVD.
However, the folks at "2 Entertain" gave it their all. The story has been
visually restored so that it looks as if it had been videotaped yesterday,
and the few special features are meticulous.
Unfortunately, the episode being supported is not deserving of such
kind consideration. The Sontaran Experiment was the first
production from the Phillip Hinchcliffe/Robert Holmes producer/script
editor team, which gave us a dozen of Doctor Who's finest hours in
the mid 1970s. As an opening act, this is not one of those hours.
Featuring the return of the Sontarans, created by then-writer Holmes one
season previously, Experiment features a villain not nearly as
resourceful, clever or memorable as The Time
Warrior. The actor is the same but the writer is not, and that's most
of the difference.
Since Sontaran actor Kevin Lindsey was in the final stages of heart
failure, his character only appears in the final episode and doesn't get
much to do. The rest of the story features the small cast running around a
pile of rocks on Dartmoor. The rocks are very pretty. Indeed, the
digitially remastered outdoor-broadcast video from 1975 looks fabulous;
this story could have been produced yesterday. Compare that with the
feeble non-remastered look of the 1977 baseball World Series, recently
released to DVD in the U.S., and you appreciate that this is a terrific
restoration job.
The text commentary, as usual, is a lively affair written by Martin
Wiggins, sharing with us some gruesome on-location anecdotes (mostly about
Tom Baker's broken collarbone) and interesting discarded ideas from the
story's first drafts (the mating habits of the Sontarans, and the British
relics the authors intended should protrude from the Earth's surface
thousands of years into the future where the story's set). The three-man
audio commentary team -- Hinchcliffe, writer Bob Baker, and actress Lis
Sladen -- share their crystal-clear memories from 30+ years ago. Compared
to the commentary track from the sister DVD release (1969's classic The Invasion) one begins to appreciate an inverse
ratio between the quality of the story and the quality of the commentary.
The lone featurette produced for the disc is a comprehensive 39-minute
history of the Sontarans. Called "Built For War", the documentary covers
all of the Sontarans' Doctor Who appearances between 1974 and 1985,
and thus features interviews with many people who had nothing to do with
Experiment at all. Script editor Terrance Dicks (who did not
script-edit this episode) reminisces about his relationship with writer
Bob Holmes (who did not write it). Future Doctor Colin Baker (who did not
appear in this episode) and future script editor Eric Saward (who did not
script-edit it) take turns harshing on the 1985 Sontaran entry The Two Doctors. The two men also take turns seeing who
can reach 400 pounds first. Colin wins, although Saward grows an
impressive mop of hair to finish in second place by a single ounce. Good
heavens, Colin! The normally zaftig Dicks looks like Nicole Richie next to
those two.
A Review by Finn Clark
3/11/08
There's a school of thought which says that since The Sontaran
Experiment is the only Bob Baker and Dave Martin story that isn't
rubbish,
it must be their best script. (This overlooks The Three
Doctors, which is
magnificent, but the logic would seem to be that it's a multi-Doctor story
so it doesn't count.) Personally, I don't buy it. Bob and Dave were
bumblers, without a clue about how to turn their often fascinating ideas
into good scripts. Thus you'll often get woeful TV stories but great
Target novelisations, such as The Mutants and
Underworld. Here are their
stories, ranked by their rankness:
The Three Doctors
That's worse than Pip and Jane Baker. I'd have to go to the novels for
writers with a worse track record who nonetheless kept getting
commissioned. These are writers whose median story is The Armageddon Factor, for crying out loud, while The Mutants is only not at the bottom of their list but
couldn't even get there with a bathyscape. Admittedly Bob Baker is also
part of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit team, but look up his CV on
the imdb some time. With the exception of a TV play called The Jazz
Detective in 1992, that's all he's done in the past twenty years. Would
you even call that a professional writer?
The Sontaran Experiment doesn't even have good ideas. Its
production team did a wholehearted job and it's only two episodes long.
Those are the script's only good points. Despite its length, it's even
padded! However, the final product is grim and hard-bitten, which I'm
sure for many viewers made it gripping.
Personally, though, I don't really like it. It's even slighter than
you'd expect from a two-parter, although in fairness pace isn't a virtue
of its neighbouring stories either. The Ark in Space
doesn't wake its first Nerva sleeper until part two, while Genesis of the Daleks is a six-parter by Terry Nation.
As far as I'm concerned, The Sontaran Experiment is a bit dull.
It's like a Saward story, in fact. The guest actors are ugly and
unlikeable hard-bitten blokes, while Styre's experiments look like
gratuitous sadism as he tortures people to death for data with no military
value. ("They're very methodical." Uh, right.) Admittedly, this makes
for a memorable villain, but he's not even around for the first half of
the story. Things improve in episode two, but overall for me it's ugly,
unpleasant and not much fun.
The production of course is hitting the "bleak" button as hard as it
can, making it the dullest-looking all-location story we'll ever see.
There's nothing pretty or even interesting to look at, unless you count
Sarah. There's no architecture, no cool gadgets, no attractive guest
stars, nothing. The moors are bleak and often rain-swept, although this
lends a touch of agoraphobic horror since one never knows what might be
over the next ridge. The South African Galsec colonists are hardly
glamorous either. However, that in itself becomes a feature. It makes
the story oppressive. There's no escape or relief from those bloody
moors. In a four-parter it might have been unbearable, but in a
two-parter it's okay.
The director also plays a few visual tricks, such as letting us glimpse
something moving in the background and then wonder if we saw what we think
they saw. Some of those I only spotted on repeat viewings. That was
good. Furthermore, this does produce a unique atmosphere in Doctor
Who. Even the Saward era never achieved anything quite like this,
mostly thanks to the horrific villain. Styre may be a potato-headed
troll, but his experiments are loathsome and it's deeply satisfying to see
his gruesome death. Note that when challenged to a duel, he grabs a
machete. Hmmm. A machete fight in Doctor Who. Then there's
torture, in what's ostensibly a children's TV show! We've seen some
pretty vile things on Doctor Who, but I can't think offhand of
anything much worse than hunting people down in Devon and torturing them
to death.
Oh, and I can forgive Sarah's unconvincing snake, since it's only a
hallucination.
Fanboy addendum. The Sontarans are portrayed yet again as being
terrifically high-tech. They have a gravity bar and a surveillance device
that the Doctor recognises on sight as being beyond the capabilities of
human technology in the year 15,000! Furthermore all their other stories
involved time travel, either using it (The Time
Warrior) or attempting to steal it (The
Invasion of Time, The Two Doctors). Invading
Gallifrey is impressive too.
There's an oddity in the casting. Glyn Jones, who played the astronaut
Krans, had also written The Space Museum, which
means that two of this story's cast would go on to write Target
novelisations. Only a handful of people have written and acted for
Doctor Who on TV, the others to date being Mark Gatiss and Victor
Pemberton.
Overall, a curiosity. It's easily as brutal as the two more famous
stories sandwiching it, but that's not the same as being good. There's
some surprisingly moderate acting and it feels as if we missed a scene at
the end, with the Galsec colonists suddenly accepting all that Nerva talk
they'd until then been dismissing. In fairness, it's hard to get too
offended by a two-parter, especially one that's been shot all on location.
If nothing else, I'm fond of it for the silly reason that it's the only
two-parter between The Rescue (1965) and Black Orchid (1982). It's watchable, but we're talking
about something that loses out to The Claws of Axos
for the title of Bob Baker and Dave Martin's second-best story.
A Review by Robert Thomas
25/6/10
I like The Sontaran Experiment. It's got a lot to say and it's
saying it loudly, which isn't surprising given it's only got half the time
to say it in. Come to think of it, before slipping it in the DVD player,
the only thing I remembered was its length, which isn't really saying
much. Since the comeback, these little two parters have taken on an extra
meaning. We get a chance to compare some of the earlier Doctors to their
new counterparts; in Tom's case, we only get this snapshot.
It's interesting that this story's main message is something that the
show would come back to when showing space travel in recent years. It's
tough out there and it's saying it on the cheap. The Impossible Planet said it with CGI and
sets; Experiment says it with a field and some plastic props. The
guest cast of Experiment portray this toughness better the bitter
South African accents and it's a world away from the cast of the previous
story. In the previous stories, we had more well-off characters trying to
keep the human race alive; in this one, we find out they are still going
after some hard work. Listen to this dialogue: it's some of the bitterest
and most real the guest cast ever got.
It's a shame the guest cast don't really stand out much. The human crew
are quite numerous: we are told there are nine but a few are killed off
before the story starts meaning we get to see six. Styre is absent for the
first half so in a story only two episodes long he's only in half of it
and sadly the silly robot isn't that memorable.
Three stories in and Tom's on fine form here, no stand-out moments like
the previous story but he's nailed the character. Antagonising his captors
and telling Sarah to politely bugger off when he does something technical.
Interesting to note all the Doctors who get a two parter like this get
into a fight, a machete with Styre here, Billie has fisticuffs with
Koquillion and Peter gets a quick sword fight. Sarah doesn't really do
much here but Lis is lively enough. Harry however gets his best treatment,
getting to go around being jolly spiffing despite what's going on around
him. I like his interaction with the crew member about to die of
dehydration. It's interesting to note he saves the day: the Doctor
providing a distraction and Styre suffering a satisfactory fate.
Unfortunately, it's all filler, dwarfed by what surrounds it and very
little plot that effectively runs out part way through. Sadly, despite all
I've just said, in a few weeks time I'll only remember this for the
length.
A Review by Jason A. Miller
1/9/19
I recently wrote a review of The Mysterious Planet in which I talked about how much I enjoyed that story the first time I saw it, as a young teenager, only to be disappointed by it on every single re-watch over the next 30 years.
After finishing The Mysterious Planet, I then moved on to The Sontaran Experiment, which, when I first saw it on PBS in early 1985, was the first Doctor Who story that actively bored me. I had little use for it at the time -- it's not a story with much overt appeal to your typical tween -- and consistently ranked it toward the bottom of my list of stories for literally decades after that. When the DVD came out in 2007, my Amazon review referred to it as "one of the year's least essential releases".
This is where you'd be expecting me to say "Well, I was wrong".
Well, I'm not going to say that, because I'm never actually wrong about anything. And I'm the guy who once wrote on rec.arts.drwho that, after 100 pages, The Pit was one of the greatest New Adventures of all time. But I will say that I find The Sontaran Experiment much more interesting to watch now than I did back in 1985.
I think this year's viewing was helped by the fact that I watched it directly after The Mysterious Planet. They're basically the same thing. Life slowly returns to an abandoned Earth after a massive fireball wiped out all life on the planet's surface. Small wonder, since they're essentially from the same author. Robert Holmes wrote Mysterious Planet, and, come to find out, from the text commentary on the Season 12 Blu-Ray release, he also pitched and plotted Sontaran Experiment, in his role as script editor -- farming out the writing to Bob Baker and Dave Martin. The episodes also features the same alien (and played by the same actor) as Holmes' own The Time Warrior, from the previous season.
In terms of entertainment value, though, this is a really poor conceptual sequel. Linx was a lyrical adversary, befriending a medieval warlord and introducing firearms to human history a few centuries early. I never get tired of watching Linx and rooting for him. The excellent review of The Time Warrior in the first Outside In volume says that The Time Warrior works because it's a story told from the point-of-view of the villain, and I fully endorse that review here. But Styre is no Linx, even though it's the same actor. Styre only appears in Part Two of this story, and 98% of his dialogue is strictly functional, with no poetry, no quotable lines. He also has the most ludicrous intellect that you could imagine, pausing a wrestling match in order to go recharge himself, while telling his adversary to stand by and wait patiently until the death-match resumes. Yeah. Like that would work.
The human foils in the story aren't great, either. The Galsec expedition is interesting in the sense that it was primarily made up of South African actors, to give an "alien" sounding accent -- well, South African actors, and series-regular stuntman Terry Walsh. However, that's where the interest ends. Vural, who's cut a deal with the Sontaran, is rather weak as secondary villains go, and his death is so poorly staged that the director had to add in some extra dialogue on location to confirm that he'd actually been killed. In Part One, it looks as if Roth is going to be our pseudo-companion for the story, but he's killed off seconds into Part Two. The two surviving Galsec members at the end of the story, Krans and Erak (not that the script or direction makes it easy to tell which one is which), are underwritten parts, and I'm willing to wager that neither one of them has ever featured in any Doctor Who fan fiction ever written. Heck, I bet that Gary Russell, who's referenced probably every Doctor Who story ever in his books, hasn't even given them a second thought.
OK, so the story is a trifle, the alien villain and human guest cast aren't exactly standouts. What makes it interesting?
Well, the location is phenomenal. Dartmoor looks convincingly alien; Conan Doyle certainly thought so when he made the setting into a character in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and you're never going to go wrong basing your story on something from the Sherlock Holmes canon. In fact, Holmes would go back to that again a few seasons later with The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
The use of outdoor-broadcast video would later help sink the show during the Sylvester McCoy years -- all those alien-versus-human-soldier gunfights staged in broad daylight in Silver Nemesis and Battlefield and The Curse of Fenric make for decidedly cheap-looking, non-gripping television. But in The Sontaran Experiment most of Part One is made up the Doctor and Sarah and Harry exploring the landscape, falling down ravines and getting lost in the foliage or clambering up and down cliff faces. This gives Part One, at least, a sense of exploring-the-unknown adventure that made most of the William Hartnell era so much fun. When the TARDIS door opens, you don't know what to expect, and you only learn about this world slowly, and only through the eyes of the TARDIS crew. Modern-day Doctor Who storytelling (at least, through the end of the Steven Moffat era) doesn't permit this kind of adventuring, but I think Sontaran Experiment works -- up to a point -- thanks to a combination of that storytelling technique, and the Dartmoor locale. Clambering around a poorly designed studio set might not be interesting, but 20 minutes of rambling through Dartmoor is.
Oh, and the video restoration work for this story is exquisite. I own the 1977 baseball World Series -- also shot on an OB camera-type setup -- on DVD, and those games were not restored digitally, and they look awful. The restoration job on Sontaran Experiment, made only a few years before 1977, is so pristine and crisp that the story looks as if it were shot yesterday.
Also, the episode inspired Ian Marter's lush and expanded novelization. But that's a story for another day.
The Claws of Axos
The Sontaran Experiment
Nightmare of Eden (Bob-only)
The Armageddon Factor
The Hand of Fear
The Mutants
The Invisible Enemy
Underworld